Tuesday, September 9, 2008

A Visitor From the Woods

Friday evening The King and I went on a double date with King's Twin and Sister In Love. We decided to end the evening at our house for a cup of coffee. As we were pulling up to our driveway we saw some people walking in our ditch. We could tell they were trying to figure out how to get into our fenced woods. Apparently the woman had been called in by the sheriff's office regarding an injured owl. (Someone driving along the road noticed the owl flopping around near the ditch.) When they tried to get close to the owl, he was able to jump our fence and was hiding out in the woods.


The Bird Lady works with the Raptor Center, rescuing injured birds. She took the time to explain to the kids that this was a juvenile male Barred Owl. He had a broken wing and she figured he had been down about five days. The Bird Lady allowed all of the children to touch the feathers. She told us how she would give him IV fluids and how she planned to care for him. She also explained to us that if we were very lucky, we may even hear this owl's mate calling for him. She sang us the mating call. I wish I would have thought to video tape her doing that. Here is a site that has many different owl sounds, including the barred owl, in case you would like to hear a barred owl.

Isn't he beautiful? The King and I had heard a different bird sound this year, and commented on it numerous times. We were never able to identify it, until we listened to The Bird Lady. Unfortunately, she did not think that "our owl" would ever be able to be released into the wild again.

So, that was our big science lesson for the week. Did I forget to mention that we started school last Tuesday? Our science curriculum has not arrived, and Mr. Science a.k.a. Scribe, has been begging me to do science or at least some experiments. God must have been listening to the poor boy. Out of the blue...a science lesson straight from God...in our own yard. It doesn't get any better than that!


9 comments:

  1. Wow - how cool. Too bad it has to now be "domesticated" but I guess that is better than dead. Great owl pictures.

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  2. Wow, cool. That owl is gorgeous!

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  3. Yup! That sure looks like the same owl the we captured on camera. Ours looks a little happier though. Your poor little guy!

    Thanks for identifying him!

    We ordered a side of beef from Meadowbrook so we should be coming that way this fall. It would be great to see you again.


    Katie

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  4. How neat, but how sad that it wouldn't ever be able to be released into the wild again. What do they do with them then?

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  5. Great Science lesson for the kids! It will be something they remember for a long time. I enjoy your blog:)

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  6. How cool...what a great lesson for the kids!

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  7. How cool! I can't wait to show my kids this page! What a neat pic that you have!!

    The waterpark we stopped at was the Holiday Inn in Fargo ND. Fun park for little ones!

    Hope to see ya soon!

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  8. Where do you buy coconut OIL??? A health food store? You can e-mail me weels1@hotmail.com I did not have your e-mail address.... so left a comment.

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